The word headhunter comes from the practice of cannibals in the South Pacific and elsewhere who killed human beings in order to eat them. Evelyn and I saw some of the headhunters’ weapons (used to smash their victim’s skulls with one blow) while we were in Fiji this spring.
The Bible reveals that the devil is a headhunter, and he has many tools to use to this end. One of the most common tactics is to get you to believe his story because of its apparent truthful, impeccable logic and reasoning. His message to you can come through philosophy and education, through friends and even church members, who relate what they have heard or have been taught, and through all the forms of information delivery in our world.
Often the devil tells the truth. He is a deceiver (John 8:44), and in order to deceive, it often is necessary to tell the truth. The object is to get you to believe his story, which in turn will affect your behavior. The devil has thousands of stories as well as a type of religion suited for every person’s biases and temperament. It is his goal, through the errors of theology and of science, through the human interpretation of history, and through various mind sciences and modern philosophy, to get control of your mind and lead you into a path of sin that will result in you losing eternal life. (Sinners will all be cast into the lake of fire—Revelation 21:8 according to the Byzantine Text-type or Koine tradition proper.)
In the Garden of Eden, Satan succeeded with Eve first—the scriptures say that she was deceived (1 Timothy 2:14). She actually believed his lie, on account of the miracle of a serpent speaking which she could not explain. She believed more in miracles than in what God said! The same thing is going to happen in our day. (See Revelation 16:13, 14.) All nations are going to be deceived. (See Revelation 18:23.) Will this include many Seventh-day Adventists? It will.
“There must be a refining, winnowing process in every church, for there are among us wicked men. . . . Every soul that continues in sin in the face of the light now shining upon our pathway, will be blinded and accept the delusions of Satan. . . . The gospel is now resolutely opposed on every hand. Never was the confederacy of evil greater than at the present time. The spirits of darkness are combining with human agencies to set them firmly against the commandments of God. Traditions and falsehoods are exalted above the Scriptures: reason and science above revelation; human talent above the teachings of the Spirit; forms and ceremonies above the vital power of godliness.” Review and Herald, March 19, 1895.
“The history of the rebellion of Dathan and Abiram is being repeated, and will be repeated till the close of time. Who will be on the Lord’s side? Who will be deceived, and in their turn become deceivers?” Letter 15, 1892.
If in your mind you have accepted any of Satan’s lies, which are palmed off on the human race as truth, then he has obtained at least a measure of control over you. (See The Desire of Ages, 671.)
“The word of God is the only fixed, changeless thing that the world knows. Like its Author in character, it is ‘the same yesterday, today, and forever.’ It not only causes men to discern what is truth, but it unmasks the soul, and presents men to themselves as perishing sinners, and calls upon them to repent and to be converted, that their sins may be blotted out, and stand no longer against them.” The Bible Echo, May 28, 1894.
There will only be two classes in the end—those who live by every word of God and those deceived by the great adversary. Where will you be?